.jpeg)
By: Manoah Kikekon
 |
| Mr. Dosa Isaac Dosu |
Landowners in Badagry area of Lagos State are living in fear following incessant attacks and threats by a suspected notorious land grabber in the area and his thugs. The threats are such that they allege police connivance and fear of the leader of the deadly gang of hoodlums that have continued to make their lives very difficult.
One of the victims, Mr. Dosa Isaac Dosu of Agekho, Tohun Badagry, who spoke on behalf of his family, lamented that they saw hell in the hands of the notorious land grabber and his thugs after they attacked him on his farm land, claiming that their ancestral land, was sold to him by one non-existent person.
 |
| Medical reports from general hospital Badagry |
Mr. Dosa, who was visibly speaking News Peddlers in hushed tones, said he was afraid that if they see him in public, they will attack and possibly kill him, alleged that some group of hoodlums sponsored by Mr. Sotin Christopher Toyin, a land grabber, have attacked and continued to make life-threatening statements to him and his family at Agekho, Tohun Badagry, Lagos State.
According to him, I was on my farmland on the 30th of May, while working on the farm with my mother and brother, when we saw a group of people with weapons led by one Sotin Christopher.
“While I was interrogating Sotin, he said one Tope family sold the land to him two years ago. I told him the place belongs to my family, not any Tope family, and this case is already in court. In the process, his boys attacked me with a digger and some other weapons. I immediately rushed to Badagry police station to report and also got the police report, which I took to Badagry General Hospital, where I was treated. This is a parcel of land where my parents have been farming on for decades, before I was born.
 |
| Court Summons |
"While I was in the hospital, I discovered that the next day, the police returned all the weapons we collected from the hoodlums without an arrest. The hoodlums went back to the farm, destroyed our crops, including cocoa and palm trees, and constructed a fence on the land.
While this was going on, the land grabber, Sotin, kept threatening me, saying that if I had died, the whole case would be over, and also bragging that he knows enough people and he has enough money to deal with me," he said.
In the same vein, his legal adviser, Barrister Abayomi Medemaku, said, "When I got to know about this case, I realised that some people were threatening and intimidating Mr. Dosa and his family with thugs on their farmland. A binding oversuit was filed in the magistrate court to bind over those threatening him. It is a quasi criminal and civil suit in which the court will invite those involved. In the process, we discovered that there were some people behind instigating the dreaded land grabber whose family has nothing to do with this land and we decided to add him to the case.
 |
| Court Summons |
“Further findings revealed that some neighbours to Dosa also colluded with the notorious land grabber to instigate the thugs. The case was reported at Badagry police station for threat to life and intimidation after the attack, and I expected the police to arrest and charge the case to court, but I discovered that the Badagry police station was dilly-dallying on the case until a lawyer from Lagos petitioned them and Area K police station. This was why the case was transferred from Badagry police station to Area K police station.”
The lawyer further said he felt Area K was already taking sides in the case, "but I needed my evidence to back that up. Since the petition that was filed was for attempted murder and the person that attacked Mr. Dosa confessed in his written statement at the police station that he committed the crime, I was expecting the police to have made an arrest and the case charged to court, but until now nothing has been done.
"It was realised that the land grabber is notorious for criminal activities in Imeke and Aradagun areas of Badagry, and he keeps boasting that nothing will happen because he knows some lawyers," Medemaku said.
 |
| Court Summons |
"I am surprised that the police are playing games on this matter, and that could have been the influence of Sotin's godfather or the lawyer he knows. In the process of investigating the incident, it was confirmed categorically by other residents of the community that the land belongs to Mr. Dosa (Dosamigan family).”
One of the neighbours told News Peddlers, "Those people are fraudulent; when they started the whole thing, I was informed, and I told them not to start what they cannot finish, the farmland belongs to Mr. Dosa and his family."
Another family member, Mrs. Bandele Dosa, 74 years old, said, "The place in question is owned by our forefathers. It was passed down to the children. Tope's family instigated these hoodlums to intimidate us so that they could collect our lands after they had sold their own.
I am pleading with concerned Nigerians and the government to save us from these hoodlums threatening our lives.”
When contacted on phone, the police officer investigating the case at Area K police station, Inspector Komolafe, said. "We invited Mr. Christopher to question him if he had threatened Mr. Dosu, which he denied. We then asked Mr. Dosu what he wanted us to do, because if he said we should charge the case to court, we would do that immediately."
Area K police station visited the scene to see the level of damage. And it was confirmed that the Dosa's Family has been working on the land for many years.